The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will have to race against time to meet its target of repatriating 6,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from Saudi Arabia, as Riyadh’s amnesty program for undocumented migrants comes to a close on Thursday.
The DOLE and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) still need to bring home about 1,000 OFWs as of last Friday. Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III wants all the 6,000 Filipino migrants in Saudi Arabia that are seeking repatriation to be on Philippine soil before the deadline.
“As of [last Friday], a total of 5,016 OFWs from Saudi Arabia have already arrived in the
country. We welcomed more than a hundred [last Saturday], so, all in all, we were able to repatriate more than 5,100 Filipino migrants,” Owwa Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac told
the BusinessMirror.
Cacdac, together with Labor Undersecretary Dominador R. Say, headed the augmentation team that coordinated with labor attaches in Saudi Arabia in the rolling out of the repatriation. Bello in April formed and instructed the augmentation team to ensure the swift, efficient and safe transport home of the repatriates.
In a previous interview with reporters, Bello said most of the repatriates were victims of maltreatment and illegal recruiters. Bello added some of them were forced to flee their employers after being harmed or violated, so they sought refuge in Philippine labor offices in Saudi Arabia.
In a text message to the BusinessMirror, Labor Undersecretary Joel B. Maglunsod said the Philippine government has paid for the plane tickets of the repatriates. “The DOLE and the DFA [Department of Foreign Affairs] have shouldered the expenses of their return flight.”
Maglunsod added that the government has provided financial aid to the repatriates. “They were given a cash assistance of P5,000 and a livelihood [capital] of P20,000 for Owwa members and P10,000 for non-Owwa members,” he said.
The first batch of repatriates was brought home by President Duterte in April after completing his state visits to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. Upon arrival at the airport, they were handed P10,000 cash assistance—P5,000 from the social welfare department and P5,000 from the labor department—for their rebuilding.
According to Bello, the repatriation is Duterte’s way of repaying OFWs. “The President recognizes their contribution to the national economy, as they were remitting more than P1 trillion every year, which speaks almost half of our budget,” he said.
Riyadh has rolled out a 90-day amnesty program for undocumented migrants, as well as for workers who sought refuge in labor offices. It began on March 29 and is scheduled to end on Thursday.
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